Jan. 15–Orange County's lodging industry has plans to add 80 more hotels after nine opened the past two years.
The annual hotel construction report from Atlas Hospitality shows three hotels opened in 2018 in Orange County, half of the six in 2017. Last year's openings had 445 rooms vs. 960 in '17 — a drop of 54 percent.
That decline seems to be a fast-growth industry taking a breather than any actual slowdown. Hotels under construction at year-end were 14 hotels vs. eight in '17 — a gain of 75 percent. That lodging will hold 3,128 rooms vs. 1,657 a year earlier — a rise of 89 percent.
Orange County developers are in planning stages for an additional 66 hotels vs. 57 a year earlier — a rise of 16 percent. That lodging will hold 10,344 rooms vs. 11,184 a year earlier — a fall of 8 percent.
PS: Orange County represented 6 percent of hotels opened statewide last year vs. 9 percent in '17 and 6 percent of lodging being built or planned.
PPS: The average number of rooms per hotels recently built, under construction or planned is 167 vs. 141 statewide.
PPPS: In the four-county Southern California, 513 hotels in the works after 57 others opened over the past two years.
